Kurt Cobain was never coy about his influences. In fact, the Nirvana frontman would often ascribe his finest moments to the inspirational heroes of music’s underground and pop heights. Their ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ breakthrough was downplayed as merely “ripping off” Pixies’ quiet-loud verse-chorus songcraft, ‘About a Girl’ was said to have been penned after […]
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When a band ceases activity prematurely, regardless of the reason why, if there’s enough of a fanbase around them, they’ll begin to create their own mythologies of what could have been had they been able to continue. One of the greatest examples of this is Nirvana, who were forced to separate after the loss of […]
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Kurt Cobain is one of the most iconic figures in the history of rock. Through his dark lyricism and genius ability to pen a universal anthem, Cobain managed to galvanise an entire generation and cement himself as the spokesperson of Generation X. However, this wasn’t a position Cobain was ever comfortable with, nor was he […]
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Most people consider Nevermind as the career-defining turning point in Nirvana’s career for reasons that quite literally explain themselves. However, their debut, Bleach, is often underappreciated as one of the most significant moments in grunge history. Commercially, Bleach might not be the kind of record that people immediately turn to when thinking about material that […]
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Success was always going to be a double-edged sword for Kurt Cobain from the minute that Nirvana broke out in 1991. Nevermind was destined to be a classic when ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ took over the airwaves, but Cobain wasn’t ready to have that much success that quickly. He wanted to have the same kind […]
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Kurt Cobain was one of the few artists who were incapable of playing the media game when Nirvana hit it big. He was more than happy to give interviews and talk about his work, but the idea of being a corporate shill and talking about how every band was the greatest in the world was […]
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In the few years between Nirvana’s debut LP and mammoth sophomore effort, frontman Kurt Cobain’s songcraft seemed to just bloom tenfold as they passed from underground punk band to Billboard conquerors. The sonic leap forward must have helped. Firmly planted in the fringes of Seattle’s music community, 1989’s Bleach reflected the sonic character of the […]
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For such an iconic emblem, Nirvana’s drugged-out smiley face logo curiously doesn’t appear anywhere on their records or single covers. It’s a face for merchandise. Some official, many bootleg, but the black tee and yellow grinning mug with deathly cross-eyes and a little tongue ever-so-slightly loose out of the left-hand side, and if you’re lucky, […]
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Inspiration doesn’t stay in its lane, such that everything floats down one big mutual stream of influence where artists of any format can dip in, fishing out anything from a new film to an old painting to modify their perspectives, and Nirvana prove that point well. Nirvana countibuted back to that stream greatly by not […]
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It’s a testament to Kurt Cobain’s stature in the alternative music world when an entire chapter in rock is felt to have closed upon his untimely death. As ever, the Nirvana frontman’s violent end has become wrapped up in an unfortunate mythos, irresponsible romanticism, and crass conspiracies that have shrouded Cobain’s death since his body […]
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